TRA - No Longer Just A Rumor

[carpenma]

Hi, for all of you that haven't read the thread in the Rumor Mill section, I am beginning construction of TRA (The Red Alliance) this week. The 40 some-odd responses in the thread have spawned some interesting ideas for the use of the site. I am still planning on using a "Facebook of FIRST" base to allow teams to create profiles for their robots as a scouting tool for others. My question to the FIRST community is, what else would you like to see on TRA? Please select all that apply. I am starting now and aim to have at least the robot profiles ready for team input by the beginning of the 2010 season. Please vote and comments are always welcome. Good luck to all and looking forward to the 2010 season!

Edit: A minor clarification to the poll options: Technical documentation would be game manuals for sure and possible docs that teams wish to share as well
Non-Technical would be anything published by FIRST or teams relating to team spirit, community service, team management etc.

[GarrettF2395]

If you plan to do a picture archive, I really suggest putting a lot of careful thought into the layout of everything.
As well as how you intend for people to find the pictures their looking for.
Just having people tag images, could make things complicated for a person looking for a single specific image and is also kinda messy.
So I have a few suggestions...
Have specific areas on the upload page for people to tag different things.
For instance... If its a picture of the game field during a competition, and you have some robots that are the main focus of the picture. Have a specific box for the uploader to enter the team # of those robots in. But for any robots that may be in the background of the picture, have another box for those to be tagged as well. That ways, when someone does a search for a teams robot, they don't get a bunch of pictures where you can barely see the robot in the background.

Also, have some check boxes for the uploader to select depending on things like what the picture is of, and whats going on in it.
For example... A person is uploading pictures of their team in the stands at competition. The picture has no robots in it, but it does have several team members cheering.
So the person would not select the robot check box, but would click on the competition, and team picture check boxes.
Then when a person is searching for something all they have to do is select where and what the picture was taken of, and enter the proper team number and BAM! You have a lot less unwanted pictures in your search results.

I hope all of that was understandable, I was coming up with ideas while typing
Feel free to PM me if you need anymore clarification on this.
Can't wait to check out the new site!

[demosthenes2k8]

I like the ideas Teamcap posted, but want to add my own.
I think that teams should also be able to post ahead of time, from a list of options, exactly what competitions they are going to attend and have it posted on their profile.

[Stephen Kowski]

a digg style system to promote stories on cd, first forums, nasa forums, team web sites, autodesk tutorials or whatever....being able to sort through most of the information is quite a chore and I end up missing important things from time to time....

[Katie_UPS]

I'm especially in promotion for "robot facebook". TBA's robot pictures never do our bot any justice.

[Chris is me]

This kind of stomps on FIRSTWiki's turf a little... but I'm excited nonetheless.

[Katie_UPS]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

This kind of stomps on FIRSTWiki's turf a little... but I'm excited nonetheless.

FIRSTWiki is often forgotten about it, and while its easy to update, you have to create it from scratch(ish). Alot of team pages are poorly kept on FIRSTWiki, and like all wiki sites, I can't trust it 100%.

[carpenma]

Originally Posted by Katie_UPS

FIRSTWiki is often forgotten about it, and while its easy to update, you have to create it from scratch(ish). Alot of team pages are poorly kept on FIRSTWiki, and like all wiki sites, I can't trust it 100%.

I'm all for FIRSTWiki It's a good resource, I try to keep my teams page updated as much as I can. The robot facebook is more of a scouting resource, at least the way I see it.

[Katie_UPS]

Originally Posted by carpenma

I'm all for FIRSTWiki It's a good resource, I try to keep my teams page updated as much as I can. The robot facebook is more of a scouting resource, at least the way I see it.

I guess I'm only using my team as a reference. I went on it recently, and before I attempted to update it, it was prolly about two years behind. Some sections were updated, but others were horribly outdated.

[arob9119]

This is gonna be so awesome!!!

[carpenma]

I suck at photoshop... who wants to make graphics for me?

[XaulZan11]

I assume this will be like facebook/wiki in which individuals update their own pages? I think the biggest problem you (along with FIRSTWiki and the photos on TBA), is the lack of teams that submit information. I'm not sure having an easy to use, nifty looking layout will be enough to get enough teams to input thier pictures and robot info to make it worthwhile. What are you planning to do to solve this problem of a low number of teams that submit pictures/info?

Not saying this is a bad idea, just offering suggestions to make it the best that it can be.

[GarrettF2395]

Originally Posted by XaulZan11

I'm not sure having an easy to use, nifty looking layout will be enough to get enough teams to input thier pictures and robot info to make it worthwhile. What are you planning to do to solve this problem of a low number of teams that submit pictures/info?

Not saying this is a bad idea, just offering suggestions to make it the best that it can be.

Suggestion!
I agree that this would be a pretty big problem.
To solve it, you need to convince people that updating their info, is worth it.
How do you do that, you ask?
Well start by contacting some big name teams, and convincing them to post info.
If you got teams like 67, 217, 111, 1114, 233, 190, 148, etc..
to have their information on your site, then many other teams will follow suit.

Also, if you contact people in charge of regionals/kick offs, and have them do things like, talk about about your site at kick off,
and send an email about it to all the teams competing at their regional.
Then im sure you would have plenty of teams on your site by the end of build season.
Again this is just an idea
My $0.02
Hope it helps.

[carpenma]

Originally Posted by Teamcap.2395

Suggestion!
I agree that this would be a pretty big problem.
To solve it, you need to convince people that updating their info, is worth it.
How do you do that, you ask?
Well start by contacting some big name teams, and convincing them to post info.
If you got teams like 67, 217, 111, 1114, 233, 190, 148, etc..
to have their information on your site, then many other teams will follow suit.

Also, if you contact people in charge of regionals/kick offs, and have them do things like, talk about about your site at kick off,
and send an email about it to all the teams competing at their regional.
Then im sure you would have plenty of teams on your site by the end of build season.
Again this is just an idea
My $0.02
Hope it helps.

I agree 100%, if I could get the site on the kickoff webcast that would be epic .

[Katie_UPS]

Originally Posted by Teamcap.2395

Suggestion!
I agree that this would be a pretty big problem.
To solve it, you need to convince people that updating their info, is worth it.
How do you do that, you ask?
Well start by contacting some big name teams, and convincing them to post info.
If you got teams like 67, 217, 111, 1114, 233, 190, 148, etc..
to have their information on your site, then many other teams will follow suit.

Also, if you contact people in charge of regionals/kick offs, and have them do things like, talk about about your site at kick off,
and send an email about it to all the teams competing at their regional.
Then im sure you would have plenty of teams on your site by the end of build season.
Again this is just an idea
My $0.02
Hope it helps.

But look at Dean and his FIRST alumni base, its working out, but not quite as hot as he was hoping.